| Dicotyledon | Literature for Ocimum basilicum
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2020. |
| Lamiaceae -- The Mint Family | Bibliography |
| Ocimum basilicum | |
Common name(s): basil, common basil, ki `a`ala, ki paoa, sweet basil |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Pantropical, widely cultivated and naturalized.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Annual or short-lived perennial herb; stems 5‒10 dm long, many branched, sparsely to densely villous, especially when young. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves petiolate; blade ovate to elliptic-ovate, 3‒6(‒11) cm long, 1.3‒3(‒5) cm wide, both surfaces copiously dotted with sessile oil glands, adaxial surface puberulent, abaxial surface strigose on veins, margin subentire to remotely crenulate, apex acute to acuminate, base cuneate; petiole 0.8‒2 cm long. |
|
| Flowers |
Flowers with calyx 2‒5 mm long, enlarging to 9 mm long in fruit, tube ca. 3 mm long, dotted with oil glands, externally sparsely short-hirsute, sometimes also very sparsely long-hirsute, densely hirsute within at base, lower teeth as long as or slightly longer than ovate upper lobe, mouth of fruiting calyx open; corolla white, sometimes tinged pink, 7‒10 mm long. |
|
| Fruit |
Nutlets ellipsoid, 1.5‒3.5 mm long, pitted, mucilaginous when wet. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 16, 48. |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
